Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Insubordinate - Demo

While the rest of the contemporary hardcore world was concerning itself with message boards, labels, mass distribution, fests and the like, Insubordinate was doing what their name implies; not taking part. To describe the band as 'fun' would be an immense understatement. Through its duration as a band, Insubordinate played numerous guerrilla shows, wrecked a nightclub, shot off fireworks at fests, and basically just made shows fun. In a time when Olympia had virtually no hardcore punk bands the four-piece that was Insubordinate held the torch. This demo tape was Insubordinate's first release with artwork by yours truly. The songs on the tape are about a variety of different subjects ranging from scene politics, general discontent with authority figures, national politics and economics accompanied by a nice little musical interlude to carry us through. I can't count how many times I've listened to this tape but I love it. On the tape is the original line up consisting of James, Ian, Brando and Ryan. Ryan later moved to California and Sean Naito of Trainyard fame took his place.

One of my fondest memories (pretty much ever but mostly concerning music) is when Insubordinate wrecked the Vault. The Vault is a bar/nightclub in Olympia that hosts 'foam parties' and many other mid-life crisis and college dweeb predicated events; all things that hardcore punk has nothing to do with. In 2006 the dudes from Tacoma were trying to get a venue off the ground that became known as 'The Viaduct'. In order to raise money for the venue they booked a benefit show in Olympia. It should be mentioned that we didn't know this was a benefit show. Getting it shut down was not out of any sort of spite for the Viaduct, albeit we would have wrecked the show even if we had known it was a benefit because it was at the Vault. I'm not sure why they didn't just network through Olympia hardcore patrons to get a show but whatever the reason fate had it the show would be at the Vault. Before the show began it was already decided the venue was going to be destroyed. Necessary preparations were taken and the fun was set in motion. Before the show everyone walked around the venue looking for things to throw, destroy, etc. Insubordinate began setting up and you could feel the tension. To add to the ridiculousness of the night Insubordinate started with a cover of "Sugar" by System of a Down; as soon as the first note was played things went fucking ape-shit. All at once things exploded. Boxes upon boxes of glossy vault foam party fliers were tossed from the balcony along with industrial sized bottles of ketchup, mustard and an entire side of ham. Wrinkled newspapers stuck to everything as someone dressed in the alligator suit (I forget who it was) opened up two guitar cases full of water balloons and began hurling them. It looked like it was snowing garbage. So much was flying through the air constantly it appeared everything was suspended there. Everyone covered in ketchup, mustard and soaking wet pushed forward among the confusion to sing along with James, donned in a rasta wig, to System of a Down lyrics. Robert (of LQD NLZ, Mondo Aggro fame) jumped off the dancing cages to pull down the enormous vault banner hanging above the stage. It took a while but security began to react. The power was cut leaving everyone chanting "IN-IN-INSUBORDINATE" over stand-alone drumming. People began getting tackled by security guards. Robert was full on nailed by some huge burly guard but escaped long enough to run outside, turn on a fire hose and throw it inside while spewing out water. The crowd as a collective picked up as much gear or important items as possible and bailed out the door. We all met back at the Wiener Shack, recounted the hilarity and then proceeded to be held at gunpoint by 11 police officers that night (unrelated incident). Easily one of the best days of my life. I always wondered why the Viaduct was weird to us and it wasn't until recently that I put two and two together; "Oh shit, we wrecked their benefit show". Hey man, that's what happens when you book a show at a bullshit club. Olympia doesn't talk it, we live it. Enjoy da tunes, and read the lyrics.